Friday, July 6, 2012

New Car: 2012 Audi TTS Competition SE

The Audi TT is neither ugly nor a race car, but that didn’t stop Audi from making a TTS competition special edition, a package of visual tweaks that turn the TT’s sporty looks up a couple of notches.

The competition special edition options package won’t do anything crazy to the car — it doesn’t add any power — but Audi made the car look a bit more aggressive. It accomplished this by adding special bumpers with a unique diffuser design, the fixed rear wing from the TT RS (finished in gloss black), and a smattering of S-line badges. The front grille is black on black, with matte black radiator grille surrounds over a matte black front license plate frame and front fog light grille. Audi buyers can specify their TTS competition special edition painted in samoa orange, glacier white, daytona gray, or misano red. For the competition special edition Audi lowered the TTS’s ride height by about 0.4 inches, and the whole package sits atop black, five-spoke, 19-inch wheels.

On the inside, Audi added a healthy amount of aluminum and leather to the trim pieces and upholstered bits, and the car gets the TT RS’ flat-bottom steering wheel. The seats, meanwhile, have perforated Alcantara inserts with black leather bolsters and silver contrast stitching, with S-line logos embroidered into the back rests. Samoa orange cars replace most of the aluminum trim pieces with body color ones.

Here’s where the ordering gets tricky: European buyers can now order the package at a cost of $5327 on any TT coupe with up to 211 horsepower. American Audi buyers can also order the options package, but only on the 265-horse TTS coupe. Because the TTS already has a few of the options in the competition special edition package (like the steering wheel and sport seats), the package’s price is less, just $2350. Add in the base price for the TTS coupe and the least expensive TTS competition special edition available in the U.S. is $50,225.